Flora Zhai’s year in the program…
My time at Nolo was nothing short of an amazing experience and honestly changed my life. Before my time at Nolo, I was working on my jewelry practice on nights and weekends and working a job as a bench jeweler. Through my time here there is no doubt that I have grown immensely both as a jeweler and in understanding how to run a jewelry business. Having access to such a well equipped studio allowed me to experiment with new techniques and allowed my ideas to flourish. Having mentors helped me in so many ways, everything from finding vendors, understanding very specific ways to troubleshoot issues when metalworking. Not to mention having so much support allowed me to have the knowledge and confidence to quit my job and begin working on my jewelry brand full time!
One of the things I began experimenting with while at Nolo was ways to recycle scrap metal in a way that allowed me to create organic shapes in metal. Because my work involves so many themes of nature and chaos, I was always looking for new ways I could work with metal that would make it seem very organic and raw while still having some control over it.
I was recycling some scrap metal one night and noticed that when all the little scraps melted halfway (before forming into a ball as metal tends to do when fully melted), they would form into a totally different shape on their own! I was immediately intrigued by this because it resulted in shapes that would look organic in certain spots, but other spots would be the geometric shape that it was in before, or in some cases, somewhere in between. It gave me the feeling of an abandoned factory with machines that’s been weathered and exposed, its once geometric shapes being overtaken by oxidation and rot.
Nolo gave me the experience in the form of a workshop with a stone setting expert, Amanda. I had learned a lot at the prong setting workshop we had done at Nolo! Although my work does not adhere to the level of precision that traditional stone setting requires, I definitely took away a lot from the experience and used the techniques I’ve learned in a large variety of things. Some examples include a lizard I found in Puerto Rico, butterflies, and abalone shell rings.
Metalsmithing is such a complex art form and so technical. I love that I have a lifetime's worth of learning to look forward to! I love that I was able to witness and learn so much about stone setting!
One of my customers commissioned me to create a pair of cufflinks for his wedding during the summer. I sourced 2 slices of watermelon tourmaline from Allan A Goldman , round watermelon tourmaline gems from A&C gems. Vendors I was referred to by laila from Nolo! Heather from A&C gems was extremely helpful in helping me select gems. I used my credit from A&C gems for this project. The cuff links feature silver dragonflies and resin lilacs.
I also had the pleasure of shooting a video of my jewelry with nolo member Alice Millar. Some images of stills and behind the scenes
Since I began this residency, my work has been featured in a magazine, a music video, and is now stocked on apocene!
I feel so lucky to have begun my journey in working on my brand full time here at Nolo! It has inspired me so much being around all these other creative and helped my growth in so many ways that would not have been possible otherwise.
These are some more custom commissioned pieces I created while at Nolo..
